In Never Eat Alone, Keith Ferrazzi lays out uber helpful networking tips that, if put into practice, will improve both your personal and professional relationships.
The core mindset that Ferrazzi proposes in this book is an "other-centered" perspective of networking instead of a "me-centered" perspective of networking. This takes shape in some his core principles like helping other people succeed, not keeping score (example: who owes who a dinner), doing your homework on people that you want to meet, and throwing dinner parties for people.
Yes, he does name drop a lot. Yes, he does talk about his accomplishments a lot. Yes, he did graduate from an Ivy league school and this probably helped him in his career.
But, instead of being jealous of him or critical of his character, learn from the tips Ferrazzi puts forth in this book that are about giving instead of getting, following up with other people so they don't have to worry about following up with you, and building relationships that benefit all parties involved because life is one big web of interdependence.
A lot of Ferrazzi's ideas really are common sense. But the reason he has "5,000 people he can call right now and they'd pick up the phone" is that he followed through with these common sense tips.
You and I can do the same.
Ignore the naysayers, reading Never Eat Alone is well worth your time IF you put into practice.